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Collapsible dog bowls, bendable medical tubes and drinking straws all seem to work on a common principle, snapping into a variety of mechanically stable and useful states. Despite the many applications for such “designer matter” structures, however, the fundamental mechanisms of how they work have until now remained mysterious, say materials scientists at UMass Amherst led by Ryan Hayward.

The College of Engineering at UMass Amherst has established a new department of biomedical engineering that will offer bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees. It is the fifth department within the college.

While forced family separations by government authorities continue to make headlines and stir debate in the United States, migrant Chinese factory workers in the Italian fast fashion industrial province of Prato have been making the choice to willfully send their newborn children back to China to live with relatives while they remain in Italy. In a new paper published in the October issue of the journal Current Anthropology, UMass Amherst professor of anthropology Elizabeth Krause and her colleague Massimo Bressan examine the reasons driving the decision parents are making to separate their families, and how capitalism and the “Made in Italy” label serve as both cause and effect of this choice.

Amanda Seaman, professor of Japanese literature in the department of languages, literatures and cultures, has been awarded a Long-Term Research Fellowship by the Japan Foundation, meant to allow “preeminent foreign scholars in Japanese studies ... to conduct research in Japan.”
With...

For years, researchers who make large quantities of RNA for biomedical and biotech studies have run into a problem where their RNA synthesis produces sequences longer than expected, known as “nontemplated additions,” says chemist Craig Martin at UMass Amherst, an RNA polymerase expert with 30 years of experience in the use of a model system known as T7 RNA polymerase.

Muscle biophysicist Ned Debold in the kinesiology department at UMass Amherst, with Dhandapani Venkataraman and Jianhan Chen of the chemistry department, are collaborating on a project to develop a compound to serve as an alternative energy source for skeletal and cardiac muscle during times of stress.

Trisha L. Andrew, associate professor of chemistry, recently received a $2,500 L’Oréal USA Changing the Face of STEM grant to increase hands-on research opportunities for community college students.
Over the 2018-19 academic year, Andrew and her research group will train interns...

Professor Edward Calabrese, environmental health sciences, testified Oct. 3 before the U.S. Senate’s Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Superfund, Waste Management and Regulatory Oversight in Washington, D.C.
Calabrese discussed his views of the Environmental Protection Agency...

Following an extensive year-long vetting process and competitive bidding, Kuali Research has been selected as the new Electronic Research Administration (eRA) system for the campus.
Multiple stakeholders—including faculty, business administrators, the Research Council and the Research...

Researchers in the department of kinesiology are seeking young volunteers for a Movement Observation in Children and Adolescents (MOCA) study to improve methods of measuring physical activity using wearable sensors.
Participants will be asked to continue about their normal lives...